500 Word Evaluation

 I think the film is successful in how it portrayed the protagonist as an anxious and unstable character. We started thinking about experimental ways in which we could convey the protagonists discomfort, anxiety and structure of life. Repetition of locations, scenes and sounds (tapping noise) are repeated throughout to establish the repetitive nature of her life, journeying on trains, lifts and through the urban environment on a daily basis. The narrative in nonlinear and cuts to flashbacks, such as in the lift. The sound remains in the present yet we see somewhere else, showing the protagonists mind wandering and allowing the viewer a glimpse of her minds eye. Sounds bring her back to reality, conveying her anxious mind. The camerawork also reflects her mental state: At the beginning, and in her flashback in the lift, her calmness is reflected through static and slow tilt  and pan tripod camerawork. Elsewhere, shouldercam footage Creates a loose, slightly uneasy aesthetic, and in the train station, train and street, handheld and handheld 'lens whacking' Camerawork is used. I borrowed this technique from Mulholland Drive (2002, David Lynch) and the TV show This is England 90 (2015, Shane Meadows).

This created a rushed, unstable, anxious and drunken image. In these scenes we used faster cuts and sped up some footage to 500% to further heighten the pace of the scene. 

We shot on a Canon EOS 70D and 550D, giving us good depth of field and low noise during the night scenes. We used an 11-16mm f2.8, a 50mm f1.4 and a 58mm f2 lens. The former gave us distorted wide angles and the ability to zoom, and the later 2 allowing for narrow depth of field and lens whacking. We created and applied a digital filter to resemble the bleach bypass effect, used on films such as Seven (1995, David Fincher).

As Natalie was acting in the film, I did most of the camerawork, but we both planned, filmed and edited together. Because we used a very loose narrative structure, the film was quite confusing and didn’t seem to flow too well. The range of camerawork styles and locations also made the overall aesthetic quite inconsistent. If I were to film it again, I would make the colour scheme and camerawork more consistent to give the film a clearer aesthetic.

The film taught me a lot about filming in busy public locations; we had to acquire permission to film at the train station and not use lighting, tripods higher than 6ft or film 3-4ft from the platform edge, which thankfully didn’t effect our film.

We took inspiration from Amélie (2001, Jean-Pierre Jeanet) in how it characterizes the protagonist Amélie Poulain, however we gave our film a much darker, grimmer aesthetic. We were also inspired by Fish Tank (2009, Andrea Arnold) in it’s use of colour and camerawork.


















I was also inspired by the short films Salaryman 6 (Jake Knight, 2002) and Beat (2013, Aneil Karia) and how they conveyed the protagonist (with little or no dialogue from them) as a social outcast and potentially struggling with their mental health, and how they portrayed the urban environment visually.

'Down' film Vimeo link
'Down' film audio piece soundcloud link

Still images illustrating short film idea

 We took still photos around where we wanted to film (we would film on location), photographing in the same places we made the sound recordings as well as other locations we thought worked stylistically. We imagined the film having a dull colour scheme with blues and greys, however they stronger blues and yellows in the location worked well. I particularly liked the images of the walls; shooting with a narrow focal length and narrow aperture straight at the wall removed the depth of field, drawing more attention to the texture and arrangement of elements in the image. This is a style we may employ in the film.

These stairs are another possible location at which we may film; the stairs and the surrounding area reflect the urban, uncomfortable environment we wish to set our film in, which makes the protagonist uncomfortable and anxious.

This image conveys fatigue and sadness just from the body language. The deep depth of field shows us the world the protagonist is looking out at, which is a busy cityscape. I would like to perhaps recreate this style of shot but in a better location that is more aesthetically pleasing.

This image I really like and may recreate in the film; it is taken in the same lift where we made our sound recordings. The mirror, often used as a method of showing a character's reflective nature, is behind the character, her back being turned on it. However a different side to her is visible through the glass, showing a different side to her, conveying that the character may be multi-dimensional, and may perhaps shun reflecting on their life for fear of instability or feeling unfulfilled in life. She looks uncomfortable and cold, that is shown also by the cold background of blue and the metallic, uncomfortable texture of the lift. The below image was shot at the train station, another location we plan on using, and used for our sound piece.

Sound recordings for sound piece

We started recording busy and interesting locations, keeping in mind 'Sense of Space' as a brief whilst recording and began to form an idea. We recorded in a train station, market and in the street, but also in a lift with few people, which was in contrast much quieter than the rest of the recordings, and allowed you to listen to smaller details, such as the floor number, tapping on the handrail, conversations and the quiet whir of the lift moving.
Dan and Natalie Soundcloud

For recording we used a Zoom H4n Handy recorder and an Audio Technica AT8015 shotgun microphone. We made the recordings over a few days, returning to locations we liked best to make more and better recordings.

Experimental film - Flight (2006, Dryden Goodwin)

Flight (2006, Dryden Goodwin) is a experimental short film that uses live action, animation and music to covey a journey from a cityscape to the sea. Very little diegetic sound is used, instead relying heavily on a non diegetic soundtrack to make the scenes more distant from reality, perhaps only in the imagination of the protagonist. The soundtrack is slow and emotional, using sounds such as a distorted female voice to create a melancholy atmosphere. The camerawork is very fluid, using zooms, pans and handheld camerawork to evoke a sense of freedom and express the journey the narrative takes. The drawing animations convey an uncomfortable and distracted psychology of the protagonist, changing quickly around its surroundings and over the faces of strangers, as if the protagonist is trying to make sense of other people and the locations he finds himself in. The drawings, along with the entire film's journey, could simply be a method of distraction; perhaps he is drawing these images from his minds eye, and this allows to him (mentally) escape the urban environment seen in the second shot, hence why the first shot is static; because he hasn't yet embarked on his mental journey. The film fits into Bordwell and Thompson's 'Associational form' experimental film category, through it's use of connections between animation and live action, as well as the seemingly unconnected scenes.The film's soundtrack, dark cinematography and lack of dialogue/characters has an unnerving effect on the audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vB0KDodaxc